Inf KS10, Noodling—dive in under a bank and catch fish with your hands, usually done in August; MO39, A-noodlin’.

1987ChildressOut of the Ozarks 28, There were two kinds of noodling practiced during my Midwest childhood—one using an encircling seine and bare hands and another with a breakable stick attached to a hook and line.

1988DARE FilecsOK, Some friends who grew up in Garvin County, Oklahoma . . told me that people wade out into creeks and rivers and reach in mud holes in the banks to pull out catfish. This is called noodlin’.

1989Yankee June 66 ME, A few turtle hunters. . . flop down in the mud and feel around blindly under riverbanks till they find a snapper to pull out, preferable tail-first—a method known as “noodling,” the practitioners of which can be numbered even on the fingers of their hands.

Ibid 12/1, Good behavior might get a pair of Monroe County men $100 of their fines back, but their illegal behavior cost the two “noodlers” $600 each. The duo pled guilty in . . Court on charges of taking fish by illegal methods. Specifically, they were handfishing in the Salt River.